I just bought a second-hand Samsung Q25 1600 Byron notebook. Its a classic model; a so-called subnotebook with a docking station containing CD/DVD and various old style ports, even a floppy! When detached it becomes a lightweight "netbook".

Some live Linux CD's don't start up properly for some reason, including Kanotix Thorhammer, 2005-04 and the latest Knoppix Adriane.

However, an earlier Knoppix, version 5.1.1 works and so does the latest Debian minimal CD with a netinstall.

The error with the Kanotix live CD happens after the GRUB menu, and shortly after the start-up procedure, it stops at a shell:

Welcome to the KANOTIX live-on-CD!

Can't find KANOTIX filesystem, sorry.

Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.

Press reset button to quit.

/static/ash: can't access tty; job control turned off
kanotix#_

So while a Linux shell now works, it appears no graphical interface is loaded.

Does anyone know a fix to this? For exmaple, is there a way to proced with an HD install from the command line?

Following advise from Kanotix's IRC channel I found that the system now boots with a Kanotix DVD burned in DAO mode. The previous media which failed to boot must obviously have been burned in some other mode.

However, the non-DAO CD media has worked on another similar notebook with slightly different hardware, both for booting and hd-installing.

My small observation here is that while a non-DAO formatted CD or DVD may indeed work on some systems, it may fail on others. Therefore, as advised various docs and on this forum etc., better burn in DAO mode!

Kano

Titel:Verfasst am: 29.05.2009, 09:32 Uhr

Anmeldung: 17. Dez 2003
Beiträge: 16345

In your case the kernel just did not support the IDE/SATA controller. Nothing to do with burn mode. DAO/SAO is best however, as you can run md5sum on the burnt media and compare. That does not work with DVD+R(W), but at least for CD and DVD-R.

tuxedo

Titel:Verfasst am: 30.05.2009, 12:35 Uhr

Anmeldung: 07. Mai 2005
Beiträge: 153

Thanks for the info, although the subject is a bit beyond my understanding....

Now instead, I'm trying to start booting from USB stick, as this is obviously more convenient than booting from the old CD/DVD windmill drive.

My system is USB-2 compatible and the bios can easily be reset to boot from the USB device. However, I have some difficulty figuring exactly how the USB stick should be formatted (partitioned?) and I don't seem to be able to find clear details on the web.

How can one make USB sticks bootable? Are there some recommended methods or tools in Kanotix?

It allows downloading from a droplist of pre-selected distros or loading an iso file from the filesystem and formatting the USB into a bootable stick with a few simple mouse clicks. Nice idea for an application. However, I couldn't get it to work 100% under either Linux or Windows, so maybe there's something a bit non-standard with my hardware.

I'm not quite sure what the Moblin Live Image is about. What I'm trying to do is to create a bootable USB stick which I can easily load a Kanotix iso image or any other distro for testing and/or installing on hd. Maybe the old CD method is easier after all...

Kano

Titel:Verfasst am: 30.05.2009, 17:36 Uhr

Anmeldung: 17. Dez 2003
Beiträge: 16345

Yes, the win+linux tool from that site works with Kanotix Excalibur too. But basically you can use even cp image.iso /dev/stick - as long it is not mounted and you do not try to copy it onto a partition, that will never work.